YouTube Spaces get scary with Guillermo del Toro

Legendary Entertainment is doing some long lead viral promotion for its release of director Guillermo del Toro’s big-screen creepfest Crimson Peak (releasing October 2015) by offering YouTube creators the opportunity to shoot original videos on sets inspired by the filmmaker’s work at YouTube Space studios in Los Angeles, London, Toyko and New York.

From Sept. 22 to Oct. 28, YouTube creators will write, shoot and edit their videos at the YouTube Spaces on sets (including a haunted garden, illustrated above) created by production designers Hillary Gurtler and Ethan Feldbau.

The resulting horror shorts will appear on individual creator channels, as well as the YouTube Spaces channel and the official Legendary YouTube channel, and be promoted through social media platforms. The videos are slated to go live between Oct. 21 and Halloween, Oct. 31.

Del Toro will select the scariest videos from each locale and give their creators a personal rough-cut consultation. Legendary offers one winning creator a development deal.

The effort is part of YouTube Spaces’ tent-pole programming initiative, a mission to bring together creative people around cultural events.

The production company responsible for del Toro’s Pacific Rim and other genre films such as Godzilla and the just-opened As Above, So Below, Legendary has been increasingly active in the digital video space. In 2012, it acquired Nerdist Industries, known for its podcast hosted by co-founder CEO Chris Hardwick and its titular YouTube channel, and last month it purchased multi-channel network Geek & Sundry.

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Todd is StreamDaily's U.S. West Coast Correspondent. He has written for a wide range of publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, NylonGuys and, yes, even the Weekly World News. Earlier in his career, he served as senior editor for the pioneering alternative movie magazine Film Threat. You can reach him at toddrlongwell[at]gmail.com or on twitter @toddlongwell1